An elevator system traditionally involves a floor call being made, after which an elevator cabin is moved to the floor of the call input. When the passenger has entered the elevator cabin a cabin call for a desired destination floor is made and the elevator cabin is moved to this destination floor. By contrast, a destination call involves the desired destination floor being denoted when the call is actually input, which means that a cabin call is no longer necessary. Hence, the destination call controller also knows the destination floor when the call is actually input, and is therefore able to optimize not only the approach to the call input floor but also that to the destination floor, which can increase the efficiency of the control.
EP1970340A1 relates to an elevator system having elevator cabins which can move independently in the same elevator shaft. In a normal mode, an elevator controller provides only a lower elevator cabin for passengers at a bottommost stop, and accordingly the elevator controller provides only an upper elevator cabin for passengers at a topmost stop in normal mode. If the elevator controller establishes that more destination calls have been received for a bottommost or else topmost stop than the respective elevator cabin is able to convey at the given time, the elevator controller changes to an alternative mode, in which an upper elevator cabin is temporarily also provided for passengers at a bottommost stop, or else in which a lower elevator cabin is temporarily also provided for passengers at a topmost stop. Since these elevator cabins cannot reach the desired bottommost or else topmost stop, the passengers are made aware of this during the journey and need to cover the floor difference using a (moving) staircase.
US2008/0236956A1 shows a method for allocating a passenger to an elevator system having a multiplicity of elevator cabins. The passenger uses a mobile communication unit to send a destination to a destination call controller in the elevator system. The destination call controller ascertains a group of elevator cabins for handling the destination call and notifies the passenger of the group of elevator cabins using the mobile communication unit. The passenger selects an elevator cabin from the group of elevator cabins according to his individual needs and uses the mobile communication unit to notify the destination call controller of the selection.
In this regard, EP0459169A1 discloses a method for controlling an elevator system having double elevator cabins, which double elevator cabins approach adjacent floors of a building simultaneously. Hence, passengers enter and leave the two double elevator cabins simultaneously on adjacent even-numbered and odd-numbered floors, which increases the transportation capacity of the elevator system. This involves the use of a destination call controller with immediate allocation of destination calls. For a destination call, a departure floor is allocated to the passenger on the call input floor. The call input floor and the departure floor may differ by a floor difference. For example, the passenger on a call input floor makes a destination call for a destination floor and is served by a double elevator cabin which departs from a higher or lower departure floor. Alternatively, the destination floor and the arrival floor may differ by a floor difference. Thus, the passenger can make a destination floor call and is moved by a double elevator cabin from the call input floor to an arrival floor which is above or below the destination floor. From a statistical point of view, the passenger has a 50% chance of being moved from the call input floor to the destination floor without a floor change using this method.